German Funding Radar (Förder-Radar) – German Funding Programmes & EU Calls with Eligibility Check

One list instead of two portals. Open German funding programmes (federal government + all 16 federal states) and open EU calls — each checked against your company profile, with an honest answer to the first question every small company has: “Could this fit us at all?”

🇩🇪 Kurz auf Deutsch: Findet offene Förderprogramme aus der Förderdatenbank des Bundes (Bund + 16 Länder) und offene EU-Förderaufrufe (EU Funding & Tenders Portal) und prüft jedes Programm gegen Ihr Firmenprofil: keine Ausschlussgründe erkennbar (fits) · unklar · passt nicht – immer mit Begründung und offenen Fragen (Größe/KMU, bundesweit oder nur ein Land, Förderart Zuschuss/Darlehen, Branche, Frist). Programme anderer Bundesländer und klar unpassende Programme werden vor der Abrechnung aussortiert. Mit Wächter-Modus ist der erste Lauf die Bestandsaufnahme, danach kommen nur neue Programme. Keine Förder- oder Rechtsberatung. Anbieter: Previsa · KI & Automation, https://previsa.de

The chain: from early signal to money

Step	Tool	What you learn
1. Early signal	German Council Radar (Kommunal-Radar) – https://apify.com/previsa/german-council-radar	A town council discusses building, digitising or renovating – often before a tender is published
2. Tender	German Public Tenders – https://apify.com/previsa/german-tender-finder	The public contract is published — can you bid?
3. Funding	German Funding Radar (this tool)	Which grant, loan or EU call pays for your own project?

What you get

• ✅ German programmes from the Förderdatenbank (≈2,300 active programmes: Bund, Länder, EU programmes run in Germany)
• ✅ EU calls (calls for proposals + cascade funding / open calls), open or forthcoming, next deadline in the future
• ✅ Eligibility verdict per programme: fits (= no exclusion criteria found) · unclear · no — with fitReasons and openQuestions
• ✅ Filter before you pay: other federal states, wrong funding type, excluded words and clear “no”s are dropped first
• ✅ Watch mode (watchId): the first run is your inventory, after that only programmes that newly appear
• ✅ Optional 3-sentence AI summary with your own Anthropic key

How the check works (transparent rules, no AI)

Criterion	German programmes	EU calls
Company size (KMU)	eligible sizes listed by the Förderdatenbank → match / no; not listed → open question	title / action type addresses SMEs → reason; otherwise open question
Who may apply	companies → ok; founders only → open question; only municipalities, universities … → no	—
Area	nationwide or your state → ok; other state → dropped before charging	EU-wide call → ok; cascade call → “check eligible countries”
Funding type	Zuschuss / Darlehen / Bürgschaft / Beteiligung / … vs. your list	always grant (Zuschuss)
Sector	your sector words in title, keywords, short description, description, funding area and applicant sector (searched internally, never output)	your sector + EU search words in the title and the portal's topic keywords
Deadline	dates read from the deadline text (dates after “bis / spätestens / Stichtag / Einreichung” preferred, start dates after “vom / ab / Beginn” skipped); no deadline → "laufend"; several future dates → open question; only past dates → "abgelaufen" + open question; dates only in words → "siehe Quelle"	earliest deadline ≥ today (Brussels time); none → not shown
Your profile incomplete	no company size / no federal state given → open question, so at most unclear	no company size → open question
Action type	—	ERC, Programme Cofund, COST and procurement actions → no for companies; MSCA and prizes → open question; EIC “Equity Only” = Beteiligung
Status	applications paused / description in preparation → open question; closed → not shown	forthcoming → “opens on …”

What fits means: no exclusion criteria found (keine Ausschlussgründe erkennbar) in the published key data for your profile. It does not mean you will get the funding, nor that you meet every condition. It is a quick, rule-based first filter; the verdict is Previsa's own assessment, not one of the funding body.

Quick start

1. Choose company size and federal state (e.g. small, BY).
2. Enter sector words in German (e.g. Digitalisierung, Software, KI).
3. Enter EU search words in English (e.g. artificial intelligence, digital) — German words find nothing in the EU portal.
4. Optional: give the watch a name (watchId) and schedule the actor weekly.

Watch mode in detail: the first run with a new watchId is the inventory — you receive the best maxResults programmes, and all other programmes matching your profile are remembered as “seen” without being delivered or charged. Raise maxResults for the first run if you want the full list. Every later run returns only programmes that newly appeared (or newly match). The memory lives in a named key-value store in your Apify account and is saved after every delivered row.

Important: programmes that went beyond maxResults in the first run are never delivered later by this watch — not even if you raise maxResults or change your profile. For the full list or a changed profile, use a new watchId. A programme also stays “seen” for good: if an announced EU call opens later or a German programme starts a new round under the same ID, this watch does not report it again. The run summary shows how many programmes were remembered without delivery (markedSeenWithoutDelivery).

🇩🇪 Programme, die beim ersten Lauf über maxResults hinausgingen, liefert dieser Wächter nie nach – auch nicht bei höherem maxResults oder geändertem Profil. Für die volle Liste oder ein neues Profil eine neue watchId verwenden.

{
  "sources": ["de", "eu"],
  "companySize": "small",
  "state": "BY",
  "sectorKeywords": ["Digitalisierung", "Software", "KI"],
  "euKeywords": ["artificial intelligence", "digital"],
  "fundingTypes": ["Zuschuss"],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "checkEligibility": true,
  "watchId": "it-bavaria"
}

What it costs (pay per event)

You pay only for programmes you receive — after the profile filter. Your spending limit is always respected.

Event	Price	When
program	$0.01	one programme without eligibility check
program-checked	$0.03	one programme with eligibility check against your profile
ai-summary	$0.005	only with your own Anthropic key and only if a summary was created

Example: first run for a small IT company in Bavaria, 50 checked programmes = 50 × $0.03 = $1.50 (measured 08.10.2026: about 450–700 programmes matched this profile; with maxResults 50 you pay for 50). With AI summaries: + 50 × $0.005 = $0.25 → $1.75. A weekly watch afterwards only returns programmes that newly appeared — usually a handful per week, often none → cents per week (each new programme $0.03).

Output (one row per programme)

source (de/eu), title, funder, fundingType, area, state, targetGroup, companySizes, deadline (ISO date, "laufend", "abgelaufen" or "siehe Quelle"), deadlineNote (short verbatim quote of the deadline text), deadlineModel (EU), status, opensOn, url, fitVerdict, fitReasons, openQuestions, programme (EU), callType, actionType, budgetEur (EU), euTopic, license, sourceNote, id.

sourceNote per German row: „Auszug aus der Förderdatenbank des Bundes (BMWE, CC BY-ND 4.0), Angaben ausgewählt und gekürzt. Die Bewertung fitVerdict ist eine eigene Einschätzung von Previsa, nicht des BMWE.“ (Excerpt from the Förderdatenbank des Bundes (BMWE, CC BY-ND 4.0), details selected and shortened. The fitVerdict is Previsa's own assessment, not one of the BMWE.) sourceNote per EU row: “Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal, © European Union. Not an official EU service; the European Commission is not liable for any consequences of reuse. Meaning of the original not altered.”

{
  "source": "eu",
  "title": "Strengthening cybersecurity capacities of European SMEs with cybersecure AI-powered solutions",
  "funder": "European Union – Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)",
  "fundingType": ["Zuschuss"],
  "deadline": "2027-01-14",
  "status": "open",
  "fitVerdict": "fits",
  "fitReasons": ["Title / action type addresses SMEs / start-ups", "Sector keyword: artificial intelligence"],
  "openQuestions": [],
  "programme": "Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)",
  "url": "https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-AI4SME"
}

The run summary (RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store) shows how many programmes were found, filtered and written, and names any source that could not be reached.

FAQ

Is this funding or legal advice? No. The verdict is a quick, rule-based first filter on the published key data. Always read the official programme conditions; for an application talk to the funding body or a funding consultant.

Why do some titles contain “?” instead of a dash? That character comes from the source data set (the dash is already broken there). Because the texts may not be modified (CC BY-ND), we pass titles on unchanged.

Why do I see no descriptions of German programmes? The Förderdatenbank texts are licensed CC BY-ND 4.0 (no derivatives). We do not rewrite, translate or AI-summarise them. You get the key facts, a short verbatim deadline quote, our own assessment and the link to the full programme page.

Why are many EU calls unclear? The EU portal does not state company-size rules in its structured data, and cascade-funding calls are often limited to certain countries. We say so instead of guessing.

Personal data? Contact persons, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of the Förderdatenbank are never read into the results; EU call descriptions (which can name contact persons) are never written to the output.

Sources and licences

• Förderdatenbank des Bundes (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie, BMWE), via the open data set of CorrelAid e.V. — https://fdb.cdl.correlaid.org/ (updated weekly). Every run downloads this public file (≈54 MB, transferred gzip-compressed ≈15 MB). Details are selected and shortened; the fitVerdict is Previsa's own assessment, not one of the BMWE. Texts licensed CC BY-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/deed.de). The original attribution (license_info) is copied word for word into every row (license). Official fallback export: https://www.foerderdatenbank.de/FDB/WS/export
• EU Funding & Tenders Portal — © European Union, reuse under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU. Not an official EU service; the European Commission is not liable for any consequences of reuse. Meaning of the original not altered; data was filtered, shortened and assessed. Deadlines are shown as dates in Brussels time. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/
• Polite to the sources: one request at a time, short pauses, at most two retries; access checks (403, captcha, a web page instead of data) are never bypassed — a blocked source is skipped and named in the run summary.

Publisher: Previsa · KI & Automation — https://previsa.de/impressum.html